Iphone Unlocking Software Due Tomorrow: Wholesale Orders Only

The promised software-only iPhone unlock for iPhoneSIMFree is due to ship tomorrow, but amidst some confusing terms. Probably keen to avoid the wrath of AT&T (and maybe Apple) lawyers, the SIM unlock will only be available to resellers, so you won’t be able to download and use the patch yourself (minimum order: 50 licenses).

A Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) amendment means that although it’s legal to unlock your phone to use with another carrier, there’s still a (dark) gray area for people selling the means to do so. We don’t see how the wholesale model will circumvent this, but it should cloud the waters enough to buy iPhoneSIMFree some time.

The worst part, though, is the procedure, as detailed in an email forwarded to Engadget. The reseller will install an application on your phone, then log in to the iPhoneSIMFree “back office” to register that license. Then the app needs to be run on the iPhone. It’ll talk to the server and unlock the handset.

Is it just us, or does the idea of installing an unknown app on your phone, and then letting some – equally unknown – website monkey around with your OS sound scary? Isn’t this how spyware works? Just saying, is all.

Prices start at $50 each for 50 licenses and run up to $25 each for orders of 5000. And then there’s the caveat:

We CANNOT guarantee that this software will work after any future updates for the iphone.

That long wait for the official Euro version is starting to look a lot shorter.